10 Ideas for Every Genealogist's Bucket List

1. Travel to a least one or more of your ancestral villages, the more exotic the better because let’s face it; it’s a trip away from your computer screen.

2. Attend a National Genealogy Conference – you’ve read about them but never been able to attend. Plan a conference today, you will walk away with a spring in your step and a motivation like you never experienced, and a few new friends to boot. It’s a trip as well, so how could you go wrong, 2012 is in Cincinnati, Ohio. 3. Travel to Salt Lake City Utah and research in the largest family history library in the world. The LDS library is the Mecca for genealogists. Warning one trip will not be enough. Here's a tip attend the Rootstech Conference in Feb 2012 and you can kill two birds with one stone. 4. Publish Your Family History – you didn’t think I was going to let this opportunity past with out a little lecture on writing your story. What’s the use of all that research if not to write and publish your family stories for future generations? Stop procrastinating and start writing.

5. To Read all the great genealogy books, family histories, novels and blogs that are the cornerstone of family history. There is so much to read and so little time. Make a list of those must reads, and commit some time everyday to reading.

6. To have a well organized Family Tree – we all preach the proper, organizing your genealogy, citing all your facts, a nice filing system with colour co-ordinated folders, well-organized digital files, all backed up safely. The truth is that would make us the most perfect genealogist. Let's be real researching is far more exciting then organizing. However, keep plugging away at it, one can dream.

7. To Make Money chasing other people’s ancestors – we love it so much we do it for friends and family but it really would be nice to make a little money at it. Hang out your shingle, get certified, it won’t make you rich but it might pay a bill or two.

8. To publish an article or book based on your research and experience. Don’t be shy, plenty of family history magazines are looking for great articles from family historians. Write it, rewrite, polish it and send it off, what have you to lose. Want to go big, write that novel, that how to book, in this day and age there is nothing stopping you.

9. To discover living relatives that you didn’t know existed – this is my favourite, I dream of traveling to my family’s homeland and discovering living relatives of those who stayed behind. They open up their homes and memory boxes for sharing. My family history journey would be complete.

10. Fill in the blank with your favourite bucket list wish, add it to the comments below!

I love your new look and I love the bucket list even more...isn't it interesting how this phrase has really entered into our vocabulary. I'm batting at around 50% for the top 9 with plans for a couple of others. For me Salt Lake would possibly not give me as much "bang for my buck" as travelling direct to source, but that's because of where I live. Perhaps #10 could be presenting at conferences etc or exploring unusual sources -so often the standard sources get a roll-call but not the as-informative other options. No doubt lots of other potential #10 as well but my mind has gone blank. For me, visiting the places of my ancestors beats everything else. Pauleen

I believe interviewing family members would have to be on the list. Aunts, uncle, grandparents all have great stories about their lives and the lives of other family members. We want to be sure to talk to them while we can.

@Patti, what a great question...for me that would have to be...wow, that is hard to choose, my great-grandfather who immigrated from Poland, he never talked about his life before Canada and he died before I was old enough to ask the questions.@deb,that is a great goal for your bucket list, I would love to learn Italian.

Hi Lynn,Excellent list. I'm happy to say I've done #1. Romania was amazing and the contacts I made there (not the least of which was a professor who got me looking at old German family letters, and started the deciphering process and now have 60 or so deciphered and translated. It really jump-started me. Re 3: if family historians live near a center that the LDS library sends stuff to -- one may be able to get those microfilms sent to YOU. I got Gerstheim, Alsace (how obscure is that!) church records microfilms from 1500s-1700s sent right here to Newberry Library in Chicago! A lot cheaper.Working on 4,5, 6; Found lots of 9 because of 1 (trip to Romania) Many more relatives there than in US. 8 sounds like a good thing to add to "to do" list. Thanks for motivating me!

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